The Ya Yas
Crocodile Cafe, Wednesday,
June 10, 1998
text & photos by:
Helen Halloran
Ooohwhee! If you've perused the rest of my web site
at all, you may have noticed my mentioning of the band The Ya Yas in a
couple of places. Well, here it is, my first ever review and photos
of this, my favorite Seattle band of the moment. (Girl
Trouble is my favorite Tacoma band, and Combover
is my favorite South South Seattle band, so if any of you are reading this,
don't get yer panties in a bunch!)
I first saw the Ya Yas when they opened for the Upper
Crust back in March of this year at the Crocodile Cafe. Way back
then they were known as "The Fucking Ya Yas." They have since dropped
the expletive from their name, much to my dismay. I was blown away
by their late 70's New York style punk rock, for this is my favorite genre
of music! They remind me a lot of the Dead Boys, which is a very
good thing in my book. Michelle and I have been bugging drummer Charlie
Ryan since that night to find out when and where they'd be playing next.
This show at the Crocodile was the first show I'd heard of since that night.
On this particular night, the Ya Yas had the opening slot
for the bands fluf and Bell. The crowd at the Crocodile received
them quite enthusiastically. They sounded great! In fact, it
appeared to my friend Scott and I that the Ya Yas had the best turn out
and audience response of the entire night. I hope these guys start
gigging more often, because they truly are one of the best bands in Seattle
right now. They deserve to be noticed by a much larger group of people!
I do not currently have the names of the guys in the band,
but here's what I do know about them. The singer used to be in the
early Seattle punk band The Silly Killers (who I used to see quite often
at the Metropolis back in the day,) and drummer Charlie Ryan used to be
in the late lamented U-Men. Charlie promises to provide me with this
information ASAP, so check back to this page if you're curious about who
these guys are. With all this "street cred" no wonder these guys
kick ass!
The Ya Yas will be playing a show at the Rendezvous in Seattle
on July 3rd with the fabulous Combover. I, unfortunately, will not
be able to attend this show as I will be in L.A. for the Hootenanny
'98 show. This is rather unfortunate, because the Ya Yas playing
with Combover is pretty much my dream line up for a show. If you
live in Seattle, check out the Ya Yas. You'll be oh so glad you did!
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